This is just an update on the Arduino watering system, everything seems to be going well whilst I am away (I am away for ~a month, till the end of Blackhat / Defcon). In winter the plants don’t require nearly as much water and it seems that after 8 days the water level has dropped only 11.5cm in a reservoir ( read orange bucket ) that is about 60cm across. The orange container is smaller at the bottom, probably around 45cm so an guestimated average of say 50cm for the diameter.

At this stage I was going to do the math to work out how much water had be consumed minus that of evaporation, but I’m too lazy right now.

At this rate that container should keep the 4 plants near it (tomato, chilli, orange, peppers) as well as the palm and the 2 trays as well as the random flower going for about 6 weeks!

Having a look at the stats everything seems pretty stable with the 4 plants :)

So this is going to be a rather strange post as at the time of writing its not actually implemented, the system is built in a waterproof container as well as the networking setup and so on. I figure that since I will only be able to get another Arduino and ethernet shield at a later stage I may as well write it up for now. Below are a few pictures of the system completed:

Completed System

Completed System

Completed System

With regards to the requirements for the system my part spec was as follows:

One large reservoir – I got an 80 litre orange bucket for about R100

Arduino + Ethernet shield – pretty stock standard

4x 10K resistors – used for the sensors

4x ‘sensors’ – sensors setup as before, coiled wire (soldered if you can) and taped on

8x galvanised steel washers – used as the actual sensors

2x transistors - used for the relay setup

2x relays - I used LT-5GS’ for this to switch the pumps on and off

2x Diodes – used for my relay setup

2x Water pumps - I used two (1 per pot) honestly because it was cheaper, although not as elegant as having a electrical valves and a more intricate watering system, mine were the 1.5A 12V bilge pumps (about R150 each)

2x Water pump power supplies – Obviously used for the pumps power, I used some cheap power adapters that didn’t cost much